Thoughts on Depression, Anxiety, and Condemnation

For most of my adult life I have struggled with anxiety, depression, and the constant, nagging feeling of condemnation. This is not uncommon for Christians—both at the lay level and in leadership. In fact, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon (not to mention a whole host of others) all struggled with severe bouts of depression and spiritual attack.

Here are some random musings I wanted to share with you if you struggle the way I do:

1. Don’t try to get out of your anxiety/depression; that’s not your job. Your job is to worship Jesus; it’s his job to sustain you through the difficulty.

2. Remember that the goal is worship, not making the bad feelings go away.

3. Don’t trust your feelings because your feelings will lie to you.

4. Lies are still lies no matter how loud the enemy (or your flesh) yells them.

5. Don’t answer the recurring questions that pop into your head (“Are you sure you’re even saved…” etc.) by either affirming OR denying them. Just don’t acknowledge them at all.

6. Listen to worship music all the time.

7. Force yourself to be around people, even when you don’t want to.

8. Talk to God more than you just think about him. Prayer is more effective then just replaying your condemning thoughts in your mind.

9. Realize that you don’t have to have perfect faith. Faith is not certainty.

15. Talk to a doctor about whether or not medication or other interventions might be helpful (your physical and spiritual health are linked); I would only recommend going only to a Christian doctor on this issue.